Panora­mas of Grey Lynn pay trib­ute to a lost ne­ice

An ex­hi­bi­tion to help cre­ate a schol­ar­ship at Auck­land Girls Gram­mar School is bring­ing back a flood of mem­o­ries for the artist.

June Sparkle’s photography dis­play, en­ti­tled Li­bran Love Rat, has been 10 years in the mak­ing and the show’s open­ing on Mon­day marked the sec­ond an­niver­sary of her niece Mar­garet Nive Si­p­ley­death.

Mar­garet was 16 when she died sud­denly from a rare type of brain hem­or­rhage.

“She was bub­bly, full of life and full of en­ergy and a great role model for her two younger broth­ers,” Ms Sparkle says.

“She was pas­sion­ate about school and ex­cited about her fu­ture.”

The doc­u­men­tary maker, who al­ways car­ries a loaded cam­era wher­ever she goes, shares her niece’s pas­sion for ed­u­ca­tion.

“It’s been a dream of mine for more than a decade to start a schol­ar­ship award at my old high school,” she says.

“This is my first step to re­al­is­ing this and I want it to grow each year.”

The 100 panoramic im­ages dis­played in the show come from a vast col­lec­tion and cap­ture the neigh­bour­hood she raised her 16-yearold son in.

“They’re all of the Grey Lynn com­mu­nity, but they’re just so var­ied. Its cu­ra­tion is a work in progress,” she says.

Mar­garet’s mother Siale Si­p­ley says hav­ing a fundrais­ing ex­hi­bi­tion that pays trib­ute to her daugh­ter is more than ap­pro­pri­ate.

“For June to take up the ini­tia­tive with all the time and ef­fort she is putting in to this and in recog­ni­tion of Mar­garet, I think it’s a re­ally neat idea,” Ms Si­p­ley says.

“Mar­garet was a stu­dent who re­ally loved learn­ing. She took all the op­por­tu­ni­ties that were thrown at her and would’ve wanted to help other girls have ac­cess to those op­por­tu­ni­ties as well.

“She would not have wanted any­one to miss out or let the fi­nan­cial side be a bar­rier to learn­ing.”